in·sti·tu·tion·al·ized
by NixxyNoxxy
Summary: She never thought she would be here. She had kept it a secret for so long. Though, it seems she wasn't as good at covering it up as she thought. Because now she was institutionalized.


Sakura walked with her head down staring at the tiles that as she was passing over them. Why did they always have to use the ugliest colors? In every hospital and school, it was always these tiles and they were always made with some color that looked like it was made from something that was expelled from a body. Why not just go with just white? Or Blue? Or red. Well... red would probably look like blood splatter, she thought grimly to herself. Probably not the best color to use. Unless the contractor wanted to make hallways look like a mass murder took place. The killers, though, would have to be mighty skilled to only get the blood spray on the floor. Shaking her head slightly to get off that train of thought, she watched as flecks of brown, that looked like smeared shit, on off-white tiles passed under her feet. She furrowed her brow and attempted to study them closer as she walked. It seemed at one point the white may have been brighter probably even shiny, but they had yellowed and dulled with age. Age probably made the brown look a little more shitty as well.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched her feet moving underneath her. The were pale, long toes, not really monkey-like, but long, the tendons prominent as they shifted under her skin with her lazy pace, toes lifting in the air then gripping down against the plastic under it. The top was covered with the thin thongs of the cheap white flip flop. Normal shoes now were seemingly thought to be too much of a threat. How could a pair of TOMS be used as a weapon? She didn't have a clue but honestly she never really pondered much on that subject. Then again, the flip flops were probably just less expensive. Well, less expensive and you couldn't hide anything in them. She sighed at her wandering train of thought as she shifted her eyes to the nails of her toes. They were still green apple with a glossy finish having been freshly manicured only a few days ago. She frowned a little, only enough for her to know of the change in expression. Not that it mattered, no one would have been able to see her face with her head bent down and her hair cascading dow. She gazed as the shiny lacquer thinking she wouldn't be able to fix them once they began to chip. She was almost sure of it. If she wasn't allowed to have normal shoes in this hell hole, there was no way they would provide her with nail polish. Right? When the chipping started that was going to drive her insane. Well... More insane than she apparently was.

She shook her head again as she tried to put off the eventual chipping of her nail polish out of her mind. She pushed as her hands down and twisted them in her new clothes. The fabric was a stiff cotton that scratched against her skin. Apparently, no one had heard of fabric softener in this place. This time she didn't even bother trying to conceal her frown as her fingers rubbed over the course material. It felt like fucking burlap. She hated it. Not to mention the color. Pea green. Not just regular pea green either, no this was like old pea soup. Like it had been left out on the counter for too long and was beginning to go a bit brown. That was the color. It was gross. It looked as if the girl from the exorcist had spewed all over her. From head to toe. The clothes were also a little too large too. She had to keep pulling the elastic waist of her pants up as she walked. And it was the ugly kind of elastic waist too. The kind that had bumps and ridged on it. Not like the ones of her own scrubs and sweatpants at home. Those had the elastic sewn in a manner to conceal it. No, this was grandma elastic pant style. It was hideous. Everything about the scrubs she was currently doning was unpleasant. That was saying a lot too since she had basically lived in scrubs for the better part of five years. She pursed her lips. Well, now she really was going to be living in scrubs.

This is what she was thinking as she was being led into hell. She was focused on tiles, nail polish, and clothes. It really shouldn't surprise her. After all, she had been deemed crazy after all. Giving up thinking about anything at all she cleared her mind and didn't look up as she followed the man in front of her. His gate was lazy and relaxed as he led her. If she was honest with herself, she kinda hated the easy way he moved. Then again she had to remind herself that the man, who she didn't remember the name of at the moment, worked here. He was allowed to leave. He wasn't forced against his will into these walls so of course, he would float around here without a care. He wasn't the one that was being caged. She still hated him a little. She couldn't help it.

They walked through the halls quietly. The only noise was the sound of the halogen lights humming as they flickered above her, and the sound of two sets of feet walking with the occasional clap of the sandal against her foot. After a moment the man slowed his pace as he came to a stop. Sakura hadn't noticed the tempo decrease and almost walked straight into his back. She didn't though. She stopped before the collision with her nose almost pressed to his back. Personal bubble completely destroyed. She still didn't look up. No, she kept her head down as she looked at the ribs of the man's black sweater that was neatly tucked into his gray pants. A black belt holding them snuggly to his hip. Pocket flaps stuck out a bit on his rear, only a little though, as turtle shelled color buttons kept them secured down. She was so close that she could and could feel the warmth coming off of his body. She could also smell some type of generic male body wash-that kind that promised all the women folk would be following him around with lady boners- and a faint smell of wet dog. That must be nice. To go home to dogs. If she ever got out of here she wanted to get one. Or maybe a cat? Those were supposed to be a little more independent right?

There was a sound of keys clattering together, then the swipping sound of plastic followed by an annoying beep. The man in front of her shifted his weight as he pushed a heavy door open and moved to the side to usher her in. Still, she didn't look up. She didn't want to. The moment she did she would have to admit where she was. She would have to realize that everything in her world was now shattered. That nothing would ever be the same. She didn't want to. No. Not yet.

She shuffled past the man then stood and waited for him to take the lead again. He did so after the heavy door closed with a sharp sound of locks being engaged. He walked around her and began their journey once more. She forced her feet to move, even though her stomach began to clench as feeling as if she was being led straight to hell.

This walk wasn't as long as the first. It wasn't as silent either. Slowly the sound of voices filled the air as they trekked. Though, this side of the locked door did still have the fucking ugly tiles. He took her to another door, this one didn't need any clearance. He opened without stopping leading her it to another room. The moment the metal whined open the voices grew much louder here. He held out the door for her again and again she entered once more staring at the floor.

Once she was in the room, she heard the man sigh and out of the corner of her eye she could see him push his hands into the pockets of his pants. They were pleated. The pants. She didn't even know you could still get pleated pants. She stood staring at the small creases, kinda by his groan, as the man shifted his weight. She was sure he was probably waiting for her to do or say something. She didn't want to. Not to him. Hell, not to anyone here.

"Kakashi-sensei!" One of the voices in the room yelled. She heard feet hurry towards her direction. Again the man next to her sighed.

"Naruto, I have told you this before, it's Dr. Hatake," he groaned. Sakura could now see another set of feet standing in front of her. Though they weren't covered in leather like Dr. Hatake's. Nope, these were ugly man feet that also only had the plastic of white sandals covering them. She narrowed her eyes at them and nearly grunted. The newcomer really needed to trim his toenails. They were much too long and looked a little brittle.

"Aww, whatever sensei," the man whined. "You know it sounds cooler than Dr. Hatake. Or I could call you Pervy Doctor," he laughed. Dr. Hataka cleared his throat and Sakura watched his shoe flex as he shifted his weight.

"No. Kakashi-sensei is fine," he sighed. "Anyways, Naruto, would you mind doing me a favor? Could you show Sakura here the ropes for a minute? I have to figure out where her room assignment is and her schedule. She also probably wouldn't mind getting settled and meeting her neighbors." Sakura flinched as the man suddenly placed his hand on her head and patted her. She breathed deeply through her nose fighting the urge to slap his hand away.

"Sure thing!" Naruto yelled. Dr. Hatake made some sort of grunting noise and Sakura watched as his shiny leather shoes walked away. They stood there for a moment and no one moved or said a word. She was fine with it because she still didn't want to move. She wanted to stare at the ground. That was until there was suddenly a face in front of hers.

The boy, Naruto, had bent over and now was looking up at her with a wide smile. She blinked as she raised a brow and looked at him. His eyes were big. Really big. And almost way too blue. His skin had a sun-kissed quality and he also had scars? or maybe those were tattoos? Or maybe a mix of tattoos and scarification? She wasn't sure. But there were three on each of his cheeks. Were they suppose to be like whiskers? Her eyes moved from whatever it was on his cheeks to really yellow hair. It was shaggy when he cocked his head it moved like a wheat in a field being blown by a strong wind. It was really fucking yellow. Then again she really didn't have a right to talk about anyone's hair, since hers was a strawberry blonde that was so light that it looked pastel pink. The boy blinked as he cocked his head a little more to the side.

"Hi, there," he said through a ridiculously wide smile. Her other brow raised to join its twin. "I'm Naruto. You're Sakura. It's nice to meet you," he was still smiling as he closed his eyes during the greeting. He kinda wheezed a laugh as he did so. His breath was hot and fanned over her face as he spoke. It smelled strongly of chicken broth. Her lips pursed as she looked at the boy. Well, it seems she no longer could pretend that she wasn't there any longer. So with a slow blink, she moved her head and looked up.

The good doctor seemed to drop her in some open area, a rec room perhaps? She let her eyes roam the room. On one side there were several circular tables. The kind that had the seats attached at the base. Each seat a different primary color. The other side of the room held a few tattered couches and some bean bags. There was also a mounted television on the wall that was boxed in a wire mesh cage. Under the television were a few short bookcases that held a few raggedy books and boxes that looked to hold board games. It was hard to tell though as they seemed to be held together by copious amounts of duck tape. The walls around her were stark white a few inspirational posters here and there. Like the fucking cat that was falling from the tree, with the saying "Hang in there" under it. She glared at that stupid cat for a moment then let her eye roam to the wall furthest from her which was filled with barred windows. She also took note that there were fewer people then she had thought. When they walked in she was sure it would be crowded. Too crowded, it wasn't though. People were scattered throughout the room doing whatever the hell they were doing. The sound much louder due to the acoustics in the room. She swallowed. This was her fucking life now. This was where she would be living until further notice.

"Oh, good you can look up!" Naruto yelled. Well, maybe not yelling. Maybe he was one of those loud talkers? She turned her attention to see him still grinning. She fought the frown on her face. Why the hell was he so happy? Didn't he realize where he was? Well... Maybe he had good drugs. She looked at his face. That had to be it. They had to have doped him up because no one should be this happy about being in a mental institution. "Well, want the grand tour?" He continued to smile as he put his hands behind his head.

"Sure," Sakura said slowly. What was there to show? And there really wasn't anything grand about the place they were standing in. Her response made the blonde kid grin wildly. It was like as if he was attempting to let her see all of his teeth.

"You talk!" He almost sounded amazed which had her thoroughly confused. "I just wasn't sure, ya know. Some people don't talk or don't talk much around here." He shrugged. She slowly nodded to him.

"I can talk," was her reply as she looked at him.

"Good! Well, let's get this tour started!" He said/yelled again. Before she had a chance to move he quickly reached out for her wrist. She cringed at the contact and quickly pulled her arm back. Naruto stopped his movements and looked down to where he was just holding her. His blonde brows drew low as he looked at the gauze that was encircling her wrist. He made some type of huh noise but then grabbed her by the bicep to lead her further into the room. She didn't know what she expected when someone saw the bandages but it wasn't that. In a way, the huh was a much better reaction than she thought she would get. Then again this was a place of broken people and she was sure that the people here had seen those type of bandages and knew exactly what they meant. That didn't matter to her though, and she didn't want him to see them. She didn't want anyone to see them. She didn't want to see the bandages, but the fact that he was so nonchalant about it made her stomach clench. Because they weren't what he thought.

"So this is where we eat," Naruto pointed to the round tables to the left. Sakura could feel the eyes of the people who were sitting at them on her, but she didn't look to them. "This is the entertainment area," He pointed to the area with the couches, bean bags, and bookcases. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw several faces turn to her then look away. "If you want to watch something, just let the nurses know and they can try and get it for you. Though there are a lot of rules, like no violence, sex, drugs etc. ect. So if your favorite show is like, I dunno Telly Tubbies, you are good," he wheezed a bit as he laughed at his own joke as clapping his hand on her shoulder. Sakura just stared at him. "There are some games over there, but most don't have all the pieces. You know, some crazy probably swallowed them, but there are two decks of cards that are complete," both hands were suddenly on her shoulders as he turned her to look at him straight on. His facial expression becoming very serious. "So don't lose the cards, or mess them up, or fuck it up. We need those cards," he warned. She slowly nodded at him again with wide eyes which he interned smiled brightly at her again. She made a mental note to never touch the cards. "So that's about all I can show you here. I mean when Kakashi-sensei comes he'll show you your rooms and bathroom and stuff," he shrugged. "Here I'll introduce ya around," once more he was manhandling her and pulling her towards the area with the tables. Sakura frowned as she was pulled along. Shouldn't there be a no touching rule or something?

He drug her to a table that was closest to the wall that had one person sitting... well, more like stewing at it. "This is my best friend in the whole wide world Sasuke," Naruto announced as he pointed to a man with his chest puffed out. Sasuke sat with his back to them, not even bothering to turn around as Naruto clapped a hand on his shoulder. Sakura couldn't help but look at Naruto with a raised brow. He was standing next to this Sasuke guy like he was some prized trophy. The stewing man snorted causing Sakura to look down at him.

"We are not best friends," The trophy ground out. Sakura took a moment to look at the back of his head. Thick dark hair jutted out in a messy manner, but not messy enough to be from actual bed head. The skin that she could see, the back of his neck and arms, were pale. Even paler than her own skin. Which was saying something since she only had to think about the sun to get burnt by it.

"Aw, shut up," Naruto sighed as his hand fell down on Sasuke's shoulder again. The dark haired man grunted as he was pushed into the table by the force. "You know are my best friend and I am yours, forever!" he smiled as he looked at Sakura. Sasuke sighed and shook his head making his inky hair sway gently.

"Whatever dobe," he sighed as he turned his head and looked back at her. She couldn't even blink when she looked at his face. It was perfect. In a way that Sakura didn't think possible. Like too perfect to be male or female. His face was sharp and soft at the same time. His eyes were dark and bottomless as he looked at her. It was as if he was carved out of granite. He was beautiful. And Sakura couldn't help but feel jealous that he was probably more beautiful than her, or hell every woman she knew.

For a moment the too beautiful creature just looked at her face. One well shaped brow-like seriously? did he get them threaded? or waxed?-raised as he scanned over her features. His eyes were so intense it had her suddenly fidgeting under his scrutiny. Without thinking her hands began to clutch the bottom of her shirt, which unfortunately caused him to move his attention to her movement. His eyes narrowed on her wrists before he looked up to her face once again.

"And this is Sakura," Naruto smiled. She blinked at his words broken from her almost trance like observance of Sasuke. "And I think she will be my other best friend." He smiled broadly at her. She just looked at him quizzically.

"Welcome to the club," Sasuke sighed as he turned his attention back to whatever it was in front of him.

"A guy and a girl best friend! That'll be perfect! It's like having a complete set!" Naruto beamed. She blinked not knowing quite what to say. She had never been good at making friends but she was pretty sure that wasn't how you made them. Then again she had never tried, so he may be onto something.

"FUCK YEAH!" There was a holler from the other side of the room. She turned her head to see an old silver-haired man by the window smiling as he cupped his hands around something. He looked up from his hands and that's when she realized that he wasn't old. Not really. Not at all. He looked maybe a few years older than her. He also had something around his neck. She narrowed her eyes to see that it was a paper chain. Like the ones that she use to make in grade school. Though, not as large as her past creations, but she was almost positive that is what it was. Black and red construction paper circled into each other with a circle cut out hanging at the bottom. He looked around excited, his paper necklace swaying as his head moved. Suddenly, the man's eyes snapped to her. He raised his cupped hands to her as he grinned. Sakura blinked and nodded her head, because... what the hell else was she suppose to do? He continued to grin at her, showing off his teeth before winking. Then he was quickly moved to a rounded coffee table, where he placed whatever it was in his hands under an overturned plastic cup. She then watched as he searched his pockets of his scrubs until he pulled out a chubby red crayon and began to draw on the table. She couldn't hear him but his lips were moving the entire time.

Crazy people. She was surrounded by crazy people. Which she knew she would be. For Christ's sake, she was in a fucking asylum, but it was really hitting her hard at the moment. Naruto had seemed somewhat normal, but... She kept watching the man draw on the table as he lifted the paper pendant from his paper chain and kissing it, then returned to whatever it was he was doodling on the table. She tore her eyes as she looked around the room. No one else was watching him. To no one else did this seem odd. She blinked slowly as she turned to look at Naruto, who was now sitting at the same table as Sasuke and had a book out in front of him. She couldn't help herself as she looked back to the silver haired man. He was now grinning stupidly at the table as he took a deep breath in and placed his chubby crayon down.

She shook her head as she looked back to the men at the table then moved to sit next to Naruto. It seemed when he said introduce her around he only meant to Sasuke. Neither men looked up at her as she took her seat, both looking down at books on the table. She pursed her lips as she looked back to "FUCK YEAH," guy. He was hunched over the table as he slowly pulled the cup towards him smiling wildly. If she was seeing this correctly he seemed to almost be shaking in glee.

"Hey Naruto," she said slowly as she looked at the blonde. Who instantly looked up beaming at her.

"Yeah, girly bestie?" He asked grinning. Her lips pursed at the title, but that wasn't what she was interested in at the moment.

"What's that guy doing over there?" She asked softly as she pointed to the silver haired man. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Sasuke had looked up from his book and was looking to where she was pointing. Naruto looked over and scratched the back of his head.

"Which one?" He asked as he looked at the people in the entertainment area. Her mouth opened at the question.

"The one doing weird stuff," she whispered staring at the silver haired man who was trying to get whatever it was out of the cup. She glanced at Naruto who had his brows knitted and his mouth pulled down into a frown. She had to look around to see what the other people where doing if he couldn't figure out what she meant. But no one else was acting in the same manner as that guy.

"Hidan. He caught another fly," Sasuke said as he turned his attention away from the other side of the room and back to his book.

"Oh," Naruto lifted his chin as he squinted in the direction of the flycatcher. He then frowned and shook his head in what looked like disgust. "Ugh, and there he goes to sacrifice it," his body shook at the words. Sakura looked back over to see the man grinning madly as he had his index finger pressed in the middle of whatever it was he drew on the table, the plastic cup laying on its side completely empty.

"Hn," she heard Sasuke grunt as he flipped the page of his book. She didn't know what look was on her face, but she sure as hell knew that it wasn't one of joy. All of her muscles were tense as she frowned and she could feel her ears being pulled by the movement.

"Sacrifice?" she mumbled. Naruto looked over at her and shrugged.

"Yeah, don't mess with the people over there," Naruto said as he motioned his head to the direction of the entertainment area. "I mean this place is full of crazies, but that group over there... Well, they are the super crazies," He warned. Sakura looked back over to see the now fly killer lift his paper badge and kiss it again. She then looked at the others that were lounging around him. All male. Wait, no there was one female. All vacant expression. Well, no there was a blonde that was working with play dough that was smiling. Besides the insect murderer, the rest looked normal. She blinked as she looked to Naruto reading his book. Then looked to Sasuke who seemed to be watching her carefully.

"Why are you in here?" She blurted out before she could stop herself as she looked at the blonde. Naruto raised a brown then pointed to himself. She nodded to him.

"Me? Well, you see I have a demon that is trapped in my stomach. Sometimes he gets angry, so I am learning how to control him," he smiled at her as if he had just told her the weather. She swallowed as she forced her head to nod. Sasuke looked at her with a raised brow for a moment before returning to his book. Great. She looked back to the group of people across the room. If a demon kid said they were bad news that probably didn't bode well.

She had to figure a way out of here.

 **So had to clear out my computer and this was something I was messing with. I dunno if I will do anything, but I thought it was fun. :)**


End file.
